Evernote has been a fascinating new discovery for me, though I know that in the last five weeks I have only scratched the surface of its capabilities and how I can use it. I must admit that, to date, my uses for it have been superficial. I have a visual of Evernote as a file cabinet and have struggled to get beyond that. I have folders for EDC 503, Feedly articles, Game of School and Gender Gap articles for my Adopt-An-Issue. EDC has been my catch-all for notes I took in class, Context Report pages and anything else that didn’t fit neatly into the others. There are no tags and I have not linked any notes; all related notes have their own folder. I tried to be very conscientious about reading each article and writing a very brief summary at the top to help me. My comfort level has grown exponentially over the last five weeks, but it takes longer than that to develop a “habit”. It was not enough time to really get used to using it and transform the way I gathered and organized information. Had I taken this class during a standard semester, I believe I would have gotten more comfortable with it and been able to spend more time discovering other ways to link similar subjects and connect the things I have gathered.
As class is ending I’m starting to think about ways to use Evernote, both to expand what I do and how I would organize what I do. I am excited to have files for different lessons and subjects for my class. I can see tagging related activities and between subjects and linking them together. I have saved articles about better ways to teach certain subjects and would like to put them in their own files. The hardest parts of my introduction to Evernote were that my tech knowledge is so limited that it took me longer than it should have to get comfortable with it. Also because the pace of learning was so intense it was hard to devote the time I wanted to see how much it could do. I plan to continue to not only use it, but to spend time trying out different things in it for the rest of the summer.
The question regarding the implications for Evernote in K-12 and higher education is an interesting one. I’m not sure of student uses before middle school, but certainly by high school this could be a very useful tool for students. It could be most useful if it was a learning tool used school wide for two reasons. First, the more students use it the more comfortable they get with it, and it will become more ingrained in the way they think. Second, if they use it throughout, they would be able to see connections and link topics between subjects. That would help students see how those subjects are interrelated, not compartmentalized like it seems when you walk from room to room for each separate subject throughout the day. That would better show students how what they are learning relates to the bigger picture of life outside of school.
As frustrated as I have been about my lack of technological skills, I am excited about my introduction to PKBs. I’m anxious to stretch my knowledge beyond my comfort zone and see what other ways I can use Evernote to help me gather knowledge and connect the dots between the pieces of information I gather. In five weeks I have learned a lot and am motivated to keep learning more.
As class is ending I’m starting to think about ways to use Evernote, both to expand what I do and how I would organize what I do. I am excited to have files for different lessons and subjects for my class. I can see tagging related activities and between subjects and linking them together. I have saved articles about better ways to teach certain subjects and would like to put them in their own files. The hardest parts of my introduction to Evernote were that my tech knowledge is so limited that it took me longer than it should have to get comfortable with it. Also because the pace of learning was so intense it was hard to devote the time I wanted to see how much it could do. I plan to continue to not only use it, but to spend time trying out different things in it for the rest of the summer.
The question regarding the implications for Evernote in K-12 and higher education is an interesting one. I’m not sure of student uses before middle school, but certainly by high school this could be a very useful tool for students. It could be most useful if it was a learning tool used school wide for two reasons. First, the more students use it the more comfortable they get with it, and it will become more ingrained in the way they think. Second, if they use it throughout, they would be able to see connections and link topics between subjects. That would help students see how those subjects are interrelated, not compartmentalized like it seems when you walk from room to room for each separate subject throughout the day. That would better show students how what they are learning relates to the bigger picture of life outside of school.
As frustrated as I have been about my lack of technological skills, I am excited about my introduction to PKBs. I’m anxious to stretch my knowledge beyond my comfort zone and see what other ways I can use Evernote to help me gather knowledge and connect the dots between the pieces of information I gather. In five weeks I have learned a lot and am motivated to keep learning more.